The current package forming equipment and technology is limited in its ability to form packages with shaped sealed ends and/or punch holes and remove the resulting scrap. In particular, conventional vertical form fill seal equipment has limitations in forming a package with a curved seal end and accumulating the resulting scrap as well as in forming a package with a seal end having a punched hole and accumulating the resulting scrap. Conventional attempts to provide the forming, cutting and scrap removal restrict the ability to change the equipment over to package multiple products. The complexity of such a change over is cost prohibitive.
In conventional technologies for producing resealable packages, a reclose feature, such as a cold seal adhesive, is printed on a film web used for producing the package in a machine direction. Hence, a line of such a printed adhesive will create pressure banding on a roll of the production equipment. Further, the cold seal adhesive printed on the film web in the machine direction will have a high coefficient of friction against a forming collar of the production equipment during the manufacturing process. This high coefficient of friction, will reduce the production line speeds and may create problems in forming the package.
Moreover, the incorporation of a feature for an easy opening of the package, such as a laser scoring or perforations, into the package material or the package forming process leads to an increase in manufacturing cost.